Ship



C. (2. WEST.

SHIP. APPLICATION FILED SEPT- 26. 192l- L ikwfig- Patented Oct. 11922,

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

W I WH c. 0. WEST.

SHIP- APPUCATIOH FiLED SEPT- 25,1921- I L:3@,7@8n Pawnted 0015.3, 1922,

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2- (I. C. WEST.

SHIP. APPLICATION FILED SEPT- 26,1921.

Patented Oct. 3, 1922.

V 3 SHEETSSHET 3- IIIIIIIHIIIII -HII'HHillhllllill lll patented @ct. 3, 1922,,

that

cnantnsoi wnsr, or ivralvirowoc, WI$CONSIN, ,Ass enon To MANITQWOC SHIP BUILDING CORPORATION, or namrowo c, WISCONSIN, A CORPORATION or Wisconsin.

snip;

Application filed September 26, real. Serial a0. mares;

Toall whom itmag concern:

Be it knownithat 1, CHARLES C. VVns'r, a eitizenof the United States, and a resident of Manitowoc, in the county of Manitowoc and State of Wisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ships, of which the following is a specification. I t

This invention relates to ships and relates particularly to cargo ships of the type commonly known as self-unloading. ships.

Ships of the type to which my invention relates are used for transporting freight in bulk, such as cement, sand, crushed stone", coal, grain, etc, and comprise"hoppers erected in the-holdsthereof adapted to contain the cargo, and which are equipped with con veyors adapted for discharging said cargoes mechanically.

A principal object of the present invention is to provide a ship of the general type specified, which in addition to t'ranspor'tii'ig',- and discharging bulk freight,is also adapted for carrying anddischarging freight in sacks or bags, which will not flow and consequently will not discharge itself through the usual discharge openings in the bottom of the hopper In'accordance with my invention, I effect the foregoing object by providing ar'emov ab-le floor for the hopper positioned above the discharge openings therein and byproviding a chute therein" comprising a Wall which is also removable}?said chute being extended downwards through the bottom of the hopper o'r' hoppers proper and terminating in a curved section positioned directly over the discharge conveyor, so that bags or sacks of material deposited in said chute will be dischargedupon the discharge conveyor, the curved lower end thereof operating to reduce the velocity of bags or sacks descending through said chute and also to change their'dir'e'cti'on of movenientfrom a falling moven'ient to j inovement substantially parallel withthe direction ofmovement ofthe conveyor upon which they are deposited. In practice, the removable bottoms for the hoppers and the removable walls of said chutes will preferably be formed by planhsheld in position in such manner that they may quickly and conveniently be romoved.

In iiui'loa'ding' freight contained in bags or sacks, said bags are deposited 1n the chutes by hand or otherwise, along which they descend by gravity onto the belt conveyor which extends beneath said hopper and by means of which and" associated conveyors they are discharged over the side of the ship to a desired point of deposit.

With the described construction, it is obviousthat freight in bags or sacks will be discharged from the top instead of from the bottom, as in the case of bull; cargoes, and asthe level of the cargo is" loxvere'd by discharge of the freight, the upper planks, forming the" removable walls of the chutes for discharging said sacks or bags are" removed, thus rendering it possible to maintain the top ofthe removable wall of a chute over which the or sacks are deposited into said chute only slightly higher than the level of the cargo, whereby said bags or saclis may be deposited into said chute Without lifting them higher than they will natu' rally be raised: in handling.

A. further object of my invention is topro vide a cargo ship of the general typespecified adapted for carrying freight of different kinds. To effect this object, my invention consists insubdividing the hold of the ship into a. plurality of separate hoppers which extend lengthwiseo'f the ship and which comprise a central hopper and other hop pers arranged at opposite sides of said central hopper, the hoppers atopp'osite sides of said central hopper being of the same size,

and said central hopper and the hoppers at opposite sides thereof being symmetrically arranged' with reference to the central longi tudinal, vertical center of the ship, the central hopper being designed for receiving one kind of' freight and the side hoppers a different kind of freight from that contained in the center hopper, which may be of the same or different kinds. As in the case of the central hopper, each of the side hoppers will be provided with conveyors adapted for discharging the freight contained therein, mechanically, r comprising conveyors arranged beneath said" side hoppers, respectively. p

My invention also comprises the various other features, combination of features and details of construction hereinafter described andc'laimed. y i

In the accompanyingdrawings iii Which my invention is fully illustrated,

Figure 1 is a longitudinal, sectional view of the cargo space of a ship, the hold of which is subdivided into hoppers equipped with discharge conveyors, said section being taken on line 11 of Fig. 2.

Figure 2 is a transverse sectional View thereof on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Figure 3 is a top plan view of the front portion of the ship shown in Fig. 1; and

Figure 4 is an enlarged top plan view of a portion of one of the screw conveyors shown in Fig. 2.

Referring now to the drawings, A designates the hull of the ship, the hold of which is subdivided to form a central hopper l and side hoppers 2, 2 arranged on opposite sides of said central hopper.

In order tostrengthen and stiffen the hull of the ship, the hoppers 1, 2, and 2 are preferably subdivided into separate com partments by transverse bulk-heads 3, the number of which may be varied to meet requirements, dependin upon the size of the ship, the character of the cargo and other considerations.

In the case of bulk cargoes, as cement, sand, crushed stone, coal, grain, etc, the contents of the central hopper 1 is adapted to be discharged by means of a conveyor, indicated at 4, which runs beneath said central hopper and discharges into a hopper 5, a conveyor 6 upon which the hopper 5 discharges and a conveyor mounted upon a boom 8 upon the ship so that it may be swung into different positions to discharge the cargo over the side of the ship to a desired point of deposit, 2

The lower portions of the walls of the hopper 1 converge downwardly to the conveyor 4 and formed in the bottom of said hopper are series of discharge doors or openings 9 through which bulk freight of the character specified will flow or feed in a constant stream when the conveyor 4 is running; but will accumulate in piles on said conveyor beneath the discharge openings of the hopper so as to seal said open ings, when said conveyor is stationary.

I11 like manner, the said hoppers 2, 2, are equipped with conveyors, each of which, as shown, comprises a screw conveyor which extends longitudinally beneath said hoppers,

respectively, indicated at 10, the casing of which is provided with openings 11 through which bulk freight will flow or feed from said hoppers into the conveyor casings arranged beneath said hoppers, respectively. As shown, said discharge openings 11 are adapted to be closed by means of gates 12, which may be withdrawn when it is desired to discharge the contents of said hoppers 2, 2. As shown, the conveyors 10 communicate with and discharge into the trunks or casings of bucket conveyors, indicated at 13, Flg. 4, arranged to discharge upon conveyors mounted, respectively, on booms mounted on the ship so as to permit of universal swinging movement, in substantially the same manner as the conveyor 7 is mounted on the boom 8, whereby the material discharged from said hoppers 2, 2,

.may be delivered over the side of the ship to desired point of deposit.

Conveyor systems suitable for discharging the contents of said hoppers are old and well known for this purpose and can readily be supplied by persons familiar therewith from an examination of the drawings without a description thereof in detail.

To adapt a self unloading steamer of the type specified for unloading freight in bags or sacks, in accordance with my invention, the compartments of the hopper 1 are provided with removable bottoms 16, preferably consisting of planks supported on beams 17, which extend across the compartments of the hopper and the ends of which are secured to the side walls thereof, and formed on the bulk-heads 3 of different compartments of said hopper are chutes 18 comprising'walls, the portions of which above the false bottom 16 consist of removable sections, preferably plank, and which also comprise fixed sections 19 which extend downwardly through the bottoms of the compartments of said hopper and into close proximity to the conveyor 4, being curved so that the discharge ends of said chutes will face in the direction in which the conveyor 4 travels.

In discharging the contents of the hopper 1, the sacks or bags containing the same are deposited into the upper ends of the chutes 18 along which they descend by gravity and are discharged from the lower ends thereof upon said conveyor, the curved lower ends 19 of said chutes operating to reduce the velocity of said sacks and to change their direction of movement to correspond to that of said conveyor. WVhen the bags or sacks of material are deposited upon the conveyor 4, they will be carried along by the conveyors 4, 6 and 7 and discharged over the side of the ship in the same manner as in the case of bulk freight which will flow or'feed through the discharge open ngs 9 to the bottom of the hopper 1.

As the bags or sacks are discharged, thus lowering the level of the cargo in the compartments of the hopper 1, the top sections of the removable walls of the chutes 18 are removed in succession so that, in depositing the sacks or bags into said chute it will only be necessary to lift said sacks or bags a distance equal to that which they would be raised in handling the same.

The side compartments 2, 2, are designed for containing bulk freight only, which will be unloaded mechanically by the conveyor systems with which said compartments are equipped, as will be readily un derstood by persons familiar with the construction and operation of self-unloading ships of this type.

I claim:

1. In a self-unloading ship of the type specified adapted for transporting and unloading freight in comminuted form both in bulk and in bags, the combination of a hopper in the cargo space of the ship, an unloading system of conveyors one of which extends beneath the hopper, said hopper being provided with discharge openings through which bulk freight in comminuted form will feed by gravity onto said conveyor, a removable false bottom for said hopper which closes off the lower portion of said hopper with which the discharge openings for comminuted bulk freight communicate, and a chute in said hopper the lower end of which extends downwards through the bot tom of the hopper and is adapted to discharge upon the conveyor which extends beneath said hopper, said chute comprising a wall within the hopper which consists of removable sections, and said chute being sufliciently large to permit the passage therethrough of bags containing freight, substantially as described.

2. A self-unloading ship as specified in claim 1, in which the falsebottom of the hopper consists of removable sections, sub stantially as described.

3. A self-unloading ship as specified in claim 1, in which the lower end of the discharge chute for bags is curved, substantially as described.

4. A self-unloading ship as specified in claim 8, in which the curved lower end of said bag discharge chute is directed towards the discharge end of the conveyor, substantially as described.

5. In a self-unloading shlp of the type specified, the combination of a plurality of v prising conveyors which extend beneath said hoppers, respectively, and said hoppers all being provided with discharge openings through which bulk freight in comminuted form will feed by gravity onto the conveyors which extend beneath said hoppers, respec tively, a removable false bottom which closes off the lower portion of the central hopper with which the discharge openings for comminuted bulk freight communicate, and a chute in said central hopper the lower end of which extends downwards through the bottom of the hopper and is adapted. to discharge upon the conveyor which extends beneath said hopper, said chute comprising a wall within the hopper which consists of removable sections and said chute being sufficiently large to permit the passage there through of bags containing freight, whereby all of said hoppers are adapted for transporting and unloading comminutecl freight in bulk and the central hopper is also adapted for transporting and unloading freight in bags, substantially as described.

6. A self-unloading ship as specified in claim 5 in which said hoppers are arranged symmetrically with reference to the longitudinal center of the ship, substantially as described.

In witness that I claim the foregoing as my invention, I have hereunto affixed my signature this 14th day of September, 1921.

CHARLES C. WEST. 

